Ahh Kmart, the much loved and adored DDS of many an Australian (and American apparently), where one can find all their lifestyle needs from unicorn onesies to smelly plastic fishing baits. I bow down to thee, oh discount gods, let me receive thy plentiful bounty.

Somewhere amongst this wonderland of cheap thrills, lies a beauty department full of your favourite drugstore brands .... and some in house iterations of ... well basically everything. This department, wherein lies a plethora of generic branded cosmetics, beauty tools, and low cost nail tips; also lays host to a stand of mask products sitting around the $3 AUD price point (still more costly than buying a mask in Korea/Japan, but I'm not in either of those countries). I decided to try three of said masks.

Thought I'd change up my frames FINALLY lol...

As you can see from the picture above, I really attempted to get a cross section of masks. The only thing missing was just a plain sheet mask, but well, yeah.

Red Ginseng Botanical Eye Mask

The first 'Hell Yeah' for this mask was the price point vs applications. You actually get two applications in one pack which make this a pretty good buy ($1.5 AUD per app.). What I love about these silicone type under eye masks is that they are thick, apply well and don't dry out as fast as a paper/cotton based one. The scent was less ginseng to my nose - more like wet grass. I found these to be very low on the irritant inducing scale, to be moisturizing but not earth shaking. However, I would buy these again just to have around for a quick pick me up.

Raspberry Leaf Botanical Facial Sheet Mask & Serum

This mask was a war of worlds for me. First up the sheet mask itself was of surprising good quality, nice and thick, but the scent of the sheet serum was overpowering in it's raspberry jam goodness. I have to say the coverage and fit of the mask was nice, although a little close to the under eye area. After removal, I found my skin to have a little bit of sticky/tacky residue from the mask serum which was a little hard to tap into my skin. The actual SERUM pack was not a serum at all IMHO. It was a thick cream texture and felt horrid on my skin - like I applied candle wax. Just gross. Washed my face straight after.

Pink Grapefruit Face Mask Capsule

I don't know what I assumed going into this one, I've only ever tried one other mask capsule like this and it was more of a clay based product. This was a thick cream, with a lovely mild grapefruit scent, intended to be massaged into the face and left for around 30 mins. There's alot of product in the capsule. I think you could easily get away with two applications if you wanted to. I did notice some tingling after application, mainly around my nose where I have noticed some skin dryness. After 15 minutes, the cream felt only slightly dry to the touch and dare I say, kind of itchy so I went ahead and rinsed off with warm water. Initially I did see some improved brightness to my skin, but the effects seemed to be short lived. Overall my skin didn't seem to experience any improvement.

Overall, I'd like to applaud Kmart for the concept of introducing a range of mask products to the domestic beauty user, however I feel there's probably a long way to go R&D-wise to really putting out nice formulas. The eye masks were definitely my favourite of the bunch.

Finally, Perth launches into Winter head first. Gone are the balmy, and rather out of season, sunny days. Welcome to the 100 kmph winds and freezing rain. Yay!

Also welcome - a rather weird dry spell going on with my skin. I will continue to blame exposure to these frigid winds. Anyway, onto happier things..

Much artistic. Very under lit.

Finished Up in May 2018:

L'Oreal Infallible Total Cover Foundation (in shade 12 Natural Rose). I've actually been using this on & off on days when I need a bit of extra cover, but mostly when I'm going out to events. It wears pretty good on my skin and is the first foundation I have not had to set with powder straight after application. About 4 hours in I do need to blot/powder as needed but it's not too bad. However if I even have a slight dry area on my face, this wears terribly and looks patchy. I have actually purchased another tube already just in case.

Ciracle Eye Contour Gel. A little of this product goes a hell of a long way. It feels like it has taken me forever to finish it. TBH, I don't even know why I stuck with it. I've pretty much seen no improvement around my eye area while using. Fail.

The Face Shop Miracle Finish Oil Control Water Cushion & The Face Shop CC Long Lasting Cushion refill. I'm lumping these both together as wasn't a fan of either. I actually felt like the formulas were very similar, although perhaps the Oil Control one finished a tad more matte. The wear on my skin was terrible. Very patchy after about 2 hours!

Banila Co Clean It Zero Radiance cleansing balm (3rd Jar?). I've never really talked about my first cleansers but I have been using balms for just over a year now. Clean It Zero has a few varieties (I'm a big fan of their original Pink one) but I ended up buying a bulk buy of this one. Pretty good - does what a CB should do! I've just switched to Heimish as I've heard really good things, but the change has been recent and so has my dry skin. A bit worried it's a contributing factor - watch this space!

One thing I love about purchasing from certain online beauty stores is the samples. Although, I am at a bit of a hoarding level on these at the moment - so it's time to actually sample some shit.

First up - Korean makeup bases, in the form of BBs, CCs, and whatever the heck a BCDAtion is...

These samples all arrived in a recent Jolse order. I'm pretty sure I have actually used Lioele's Triple the Solution previously, so I decided to leave that one until last.

Below you'll find a quick review of each of these base products, and which one came out as the winner. Please note, all product descriptions in each About section have information taken from the Jolse website, where available.

Apologies for the lighting on a couple of these shots - I get ready like REALLY early in the morning.

1. Lioele Dollish Cera-V CC

About:

SPF34 PA++

Whitening & wrinkle care

4 IN 1: Skin care + make-up + nutrition + moisture glow

Thoughts:

The CC cream is one of those white creams with minuscule capsules of colour which explode/melt when applied. The thing is you can definitely NOT use a sponge or brush to get this to work - hands only. The cream is quite thick and hard to work with. I barely got a full faces coverage out of the sample. Once applied I noticed it immediately settled into any fine lines and made them more noticeable. Also left a really pale cast which looked like I had applied full on sunblock to my face. Four hours in I had much regret I had tested this on a work day. I'm not a fan.

2. Lioele Dollish Veil Vita BB

About:

SPF25 PA++

Six natural vitamin ingredients to improve skin condition.

Comes in a lilac (one I tried) and green base to assist with correcting skin tone and covering blemishes.

Creamy and long lasting.

Thoughts:

A very similar texture to the above, in a very light lilac base cream. Application felt a little draggy on my skin but once applied, this BB has more of a matte finish and looks way better than day one (which kind of ended up looking like greasy sunscreen on me). The wear on this was not that great. Pretty much the same outcome as the above. Plus I've just realized I really don't like applying my base with my hands anymore. Kind of fail.

Let's take a meme break:

3. TonyMoly Luminous Goddess Aura BB Cream

About:

SPF37 PA++

Superb coverage, lightening, gives glowy goddess aura.

Dense texture with great adherence.

Thoughts:

Out of the packet, I had high hopes for this BB. The texture, color and application were all really good for me. I found the coverage to be a medium, maybe leaning a little on the light side. Unfortunately it didn't really wear well on my skin. By four hours in there was noticeable patchiness around my T-Zone. At the end of the day it had pretty much completely worn of my chin and nose.

4. TonyMoly BCDATION+

About:

The sample was clueless ... WHERE IS THE SPF PA INFO MY DUDES?

AMIRIRTE... THERE IS NO SPF PA PROTECTION... WHUT?!

Thoughts:

So, I didn't really find a lot of information on the Jolse site or on the sample package for that matter, however it looks like it comes with no sun protection. So there's that. This BCDation comes in three shades - I received a sample of shade 02 Skin Beige. I wasn't really a fan of the application on this one TBH. I can't quite put my finger on it, it just didn't really go on very smoothly? The finish however was pretty nice once applied - kind of semi-matte. This actually had pretty good staying power on my skin, at the end of a 6 hour day it still looked OK. There was some definite oiliness in my TZone, and it had settled into my pores on my cheeks and chin. Overall though, I wasn't too impressed.

5. Lioele Triple the Solution

About:

SPF30 PA++

Whitening & wrinkle care.

Provides UVA and UVB protection.

Natural coverage to provide flawless complexion.

Thoughts:

I absolutely reckon I have tried this one before and not liked it. I kind of remember it being a pain in the ass to apply. It's a little thicker than the others so far, that said the coverage (once managed) is pretty good. I put it on the heavier side of the medium spectrum. Also for something that only comes in one shade, I was lucky enough that this oxidized to look pretty good on my skin. The wear was pretty good too - while in the later part of the day (calling it 8 hours - it was Friday OK? I can't exactly remember) it did settle into my pores and creases and show some wearing on my chin it actually still looked pretty good overall.

FINAL FIGHT!

I'm going to have to call it - Triple the Solution, despite it's inadequacies, actually managed to win Sample Week 1. I am absolutely shit sure I have used this and been impressively unimpressed in the past, however skin does change with age... so there's that. All that said there is no clear winner here, so I guess I'll keep searching.

As any random passerby of this blog may notice, I kind of have a soft spot for zombies. In recent years I have never been so bored with something that should be 100% Awesome. I have to say I've always preferred the "hyped up on meth" version of zombies (28 Days Later, World War Z - despite it being a bit shit) as I prefer the threat to be RUN BITCH rather than just wait for a minute, HERE THEY COME-... oh wait, they got stuck behind that fence, why yes I would like a cup of tea... OH SHIT H.... never mind.

Train to Busan (Hangul: 부산행 ... you're welcome) is a 2016 movie that was widely well received and won all the zombie media awards of said year. (There are no zombie media awards that I know of, yes I made that up). Starring Jung Yu-mi (The Crucible) and Gong Yoo (also The Crucible and breakthrough drama 1st Coffee Shop Prince, AND my first Hallyu crush) while being directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the film works on a tight narrative which drives what seems like non-stop action and thrills. Get on the train to Busan and shit happens.

It has been described as one of the best horror movies of its respective year, and I have to agree. I was totally engaged from the moment that train departed. (Watch it and you will see) Gong Yoo is totally believable as a workaholic dad, and when he steps up to heroism it feels right - not overacted, not like he was secretly The Rock all along, but like he's doing what a father needs to do. All of the characters have strong development, no-one feels like a trope. The story Yeon Sang-ho weaves kept me completely glued to the screen for the entire run, which is more than I can say for several recent zombie media appearances - I'm looking at you Walking Dead...

Even if you aren't a zombie genre fan, I feel it's worth a watch for a great action movie with real character depth. Highly recommended 10/10. (Slightly biased Zombies + Gong Yoo ... ya know what I'm sayin'???)